


Partner Appreciation Day

by gaytypo



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon? I dont know her, Confessions, M/M, Pining, Souyo Week 2019, i guess there's a little angst but like it's resolved, mentions of other members of the team, oh no i forgot to have him explain mise en place, there's two cuss words, too much talk about cats, unresolved mise en place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 19:12:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18998785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytypo/pseuds/gaytypo
Summary: Yosuke and Nanako stand in the kitchen, utensils and ingredients spread haphazardly before them on the counter. It smells like a familiar breakfast: omurice, bread, some freshly bought fruit. The spread seems promising despite the destruction in their workspace.“Did nobody ever teach you mise en place?”------------------------------------------For Souyo Week 2019 | Day 2: Confessions or Partner (guess what I did both)





	Partner Appreciation Day

**Author's Note:**

> I found a list of relationship holidays online. There was an ex-spouse day, but no partners day. SMH. Pretend I posted this yesterday btw.

Souji Seta likes to wake up early. There’s so much to do in a day—study, work, see friends, cook, train, the list goes on and on. With all of those tasks on his mind, he feels a sense of reluctance when Yosuke texts him late at night (presumably straight from a shift at Junes) with the vague instruction: 

_ sleep in 2morrow its a special day ;) _

Nonetheless, he tries to sleep in. Yosuke is his best friend; why wouldn’t he trust him?

_ I’ll do my best. May I ask why tomorrow is so special? _

He waits a few minutes for a familiar buzz.

_ no lol _

He gives in and falls asleep, his partner fresh on his mind.

 

Despite his best efforts to smother himself and his consciousness with blankets, his internal clock wakes him up not long after the usual time. No new texts wait for him, but the sounds of people downstairs provide some clue as to Yosuke’s plans. There’s no way Dojima is so lively at such an hour, after all. Nanako’s familiar giggle carries up the stairs as he tiptoes down, using a stealth of the shadow world to try and sneak a peek.

Yosuke and Nanako stand in the kitchen, utensils and ingredients spread haphazardly before them on the counter. It smells like a familiar breakfast: omurice, bread, some freshly bought fruit. The spread seems promising despite the destruction in their workspace.

“Did nobody ever teach you mise en place?” Souji reveals himself from the stairway.

Yosuke squeaks in surprise and almost drops the bowl he was working in. “You’re up? Go back to bed! At least for another ten minutes. Please.” 

_ Cute, _ he thinks. As a response, he crosses his arms and leans against the kitchen doorway.

“You see that, Nanako? He’s resisting! You distract him while I finalize everything in here.”

Nanako nods and runs forward. “Big Bro,” she shouts, “Let’s watch the morning TV!”

He doesn’t have to wait very long. Still, he spends the entire wait looking away from the TV, trying to figure out what motivated Yosuke to wake up early  _ on a weekend _ and cook breakfast for him. He’s not trying to get out of a trip to the TV world, the schedules didn’t work out for that. He could be trying to get Souji to do something, but it would seem more in character for him to ask first and return a heap of favors later.  _ He could just plain want to hang out _ , Souji tells himself,  _ maybe all the time you’ve spent with everyone else made him lonely. _

Yosuke enters the room and puts on his presentational voice, “Sir and Madam, your meal is ready.”

 

Souji had been briefly worried about the quality of the food before him. His cousin and partner weren’t exactly known for their cooking prowess. But of course, there was no cause to worry. It tastes like a meal lovingly crafted by two people he deeply cherishes. And it’s far from what Yukiko and Chie could do.

“How’s it taste?” Yosuke asks, a nervous lilt in his voice.

He doesn’t hesitate to respond. “Delicious.” A grumbling comes from the staircase and a tired Dojima emerges. He looks partially ready for work, lacking a tie and a cup of coffee to boost his mood. Souji addresses him, “Good morning, Uncle. Yosuke and Nanako made us breakfast.”

“I’ve been told that much.” Dojima mutters. Souji shoots an intrigued glance towards Yosuke. “Did you hooligans start the coffee?”

“Yes, sir!” Yosuke shoots up and starts to prepare a mug before Dojima shoos him off. He sits back down with a mixture of relief and anxiety. It’s no secret that Souji’s uncle makes him very scared. Souji fondly tries to imagine the conversation when Yosuke tried to convince him to let the whole breakfast thing happen. It doesn’t seem like a very unreasonable request, but Yosuke’s logic is a little unreasonable from time to time. Souji has seen his partner face down shadows and even death with a grin, but god forbid he has to hold a conversation with scary cop uncle.

“So, what’s the plan, Yosuke?” he asks.

“We’re going to go to Okina while Nanako hangs out with Teddie.” Yosuke starts picking up plates. “If that’s okay with you…?”

“It sounds wonderful. I’ll go get ready.” Souji stands, withholding the rest of his questions. 

“I’ll clean the kitchen, Big Bro!”

“Not if I clean it first!”

 

The walk to the train station isn’t so chaotic. Uncle Dojima is taking Nanako over to Teddie on his way to work, so him and Yosuke are alone. He figures this is the time for questions. “When you texted me, you said today was a special day. Are you ready to elaborate on that?”

“Oh, yeah.” Yosuke scratches the back of his neck, chuckling. “It’s Partner Appreciation Day.”

Souji holds back a laugh, himself. “That sounds like a made-up holiday.”

“It definitely is.” Yosuke hesitates again. “Man, I hate saying embarrassing stuff. It’s just that, we haven’t been hanging much lately, and I was thinking about how to be a better partner.”

_ He made up a holiday for you _ , Souji thinks,  _ why aren’t you marrying him on the spot? _ Instead, he says, “If it’s partner appreciation day, why can’t I show my appreciation for you, too?”

Yosuke lets out an anguished  _ augh _ . “That’s not the point! I’m doing the thing.”

“But you’re my partner just as much as I’m yours.”

He flushes. “You do stuff for me all the time. Right now the partner we’re appreciating is you. Just let me have this one.”

“Hm, ok.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. I’m excited to see what you have planned.”

 

As it would turn out, Yosuke had more of a plan than just going to the city and hanging out. Souji wonders how long he’s been thinking about this. The first stop is a pet store.

“There’s cats here,” Yosuke reasons, “And not just the stray kind. They let you choose a couple and give you a little space to play with them in.”

The premise sounds like some kind of heaven. For one, he doesn’t have to attract the cats with tuna and patience. They’re just  _ there _ , immediately gratifying. Also, the few times he’s brought Yosuke with him on cat hunting journeys, it was absolute bliss. Yosuke isn’t particularly experienced with cats, but smiles a gentle and beautiful smile when one lets him pet it. 

Souji chooses a British Shorthair, making a comment that his shadow would look like that. Yosuke picks what looks like a little Maine Coon, an absolute ball of fluff. “Some of those cats grow to be as big as dogs,” he observes. Yosuke’s eyes light up with wonder. He plays with his cat for a bit before it decides playing is  _ too much _ work and it wants to snooze on his lap.

“If you got a cat, I’d probably spend more time with it than you during study sessions,” Yosuke says.

He tries to think of some funny retort about failing classes or a shallow partnership but gets stuck on the idea. He doesn’t usually let himself think about stuff like that, getting pets and the likes. With his parents, it just wasn’t an option. Never even a consideration. He just wasn’t raised to ask for things like that. And now that options and people pop up that want to give him things and make him happy and spend time with him, it’s a bit much to process. So he settles with saying, “Probably,” and petting the cat on him.

Yosuke clearly senses the tone shift. But he does not comment. Seconds pass, and Yosuke’s cat appears on his lap, too.

Souji thinks that this is the perfect kind of appreciation.

 

Some of Yosuke’s plans seem frantic. How he rushes to pay for snacks and tickets. The way he checks to make sure Souji is having fun. He hoped that as the sun went down on this ‘appreciation day’, Yosuke’s anxieties would also wane. Instead, some aspect of it grew more desperate. The last stop is a park. Quietly beautiful, the two boys stare at a fish pond in silence. There’s an impending sense in the air, some want for closure before they had to head back to Inaba for the day. He can’t figure out what else Yosuke wants to do, though. Does he want Souji to say something?

“This has been nice.” Souji settles for the truth. “I think you’ve picked up on it, but I’m not really used to people trying to do things for me. I think if it’s you, though, I can try to get used to it. What are partners for, right?”

Yosuke smiles at that. “Of course. You know, I’m not as useless as Chie would have you think. If there’s ever anything you need or want, I’m your guy.”

There is one thing Souji wants, but never dares to ask for. “Thanks,  _ Partner _ . For now, maybe I’ll just ask a question.”

“What is it?”

“I was just wondering, you’ve seemed nervous. What has you so worried? You know that you don’t have to constantly prove yourself to be my partner, right? It feels almost like you’re overcompensating.”

Yosuke breathes deep. It’s a heavier question. He does it a few times more for good measure. “I don’t want to lose this thing we have.”

“You won’t—”

“No, I mean. Are you sure? I just, I want to be partners forever, the way we’ve been doing.”

“We can be. Why wouldn’t we be?” Souji tries to be reassuring. He knows that Yosuke hasn’t always had good friends or a support system. It makes sense to worry about losing that.

Yosuke stares hard into his shoes. “Because of me.”

It sounds ridiculous, really. Souji doesn’t know how to tell Yosuke that he means the world to him. How he is so incredibly in love with his best friend that the only thing he thinks could jeopardize their relationship is himself. “You’re not doing anything wrong. You won’t do anything wrong. If you do mess things up, do you think I wouldn’t forgive you?”

“Would you forgive me if you knew what I was thinking? If you knew that I accidentally think about you all the time in class and at work and when I’m trying to sleep. And, would you still want to look at me if you knew how warm it makes me when you just smile? When you’re right in front of me, I want to reach out and hold you in the way that partners shouldn’t. I don’t want to lose what we have, but I can’t fucking look at you without wanting more and I hate it.”

Yosuke starts to pull back, no longer looking down in shame, letting it flow from his eyes freely. Souji isn’t good at responses. He has to think out each word and map out the sentences. But it isn’t the time to stew and backtrack. So he reaches out and grabs Yosuke’s shoulders. He holds him the way partners shouldn’t and waits for the words to come.

“Would you forgive me if I said I felt the same?”

He feels Yosuke shake and nearly sob into his shoulder so he grips tighter. Yosuke is usually something hot. Touching for him is casual and full of warmth. He would throw an arm around Souji’s shoulder and lean, trusting him with his weight and his affection. Or sometimes, Souji would say something silly and he would reach over and ruffle his hair, thinking nothing of everything to him. But this touch was soft and fragile. His bones felt brittle like the underfed stray cat by the Samegawa. The embrace was with vulnerability, like Yosuke could break from unrealized fear of rejection.

Souji holds him for as long as he needs to let the fear run its course into relief. The internalized despair and disgust so perilously juggled with a full life of battle and puberty and school drop off his shoulders like the weight of the world. Yosuke grips back, and Souji thinks he needs this too.

“We’re partners,” he says. It’s a simple statement, but the weight of it is complex. The meaning it carried yesterday isn’t the same as this moment.

“We’re partners,” Yosuke affirms.

They can’t separate, or else one or both might melt. So, as they make their way back to the train to Inaba, they hold hands.

They hold tight the way partners can if they damn well please.


End file.
